Newsletter #83 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

We have seen the series of twelve symbolic pictures of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the first foundation – the Heart of God the Father. Now we begin to see the series of divine perfections of God the Son mirrored in the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

THE SECOND FOUNDATION OF THE DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY:
THE HEART OF GOD THE SON

Divine Perfections of God the Son Mirrored in the Immaculate Heart of Mary

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, TEACHER OF THE DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

We have every reason to consider the adorable Heart of Jesus as the second foundation of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The supremely ardent love for the Heart of His dearest Mother, burning in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, makes Him the herald of this devotion, which He teaches to us both by word and example.

Would you know how the Only begotten Son of God, who is also the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, exhorts us to venerate His glorious Mother’s Immaculate Heart? Listen to what He revealed in the year 1300 to St. Mechtilde, one of the most glorious daughters of St. Benedict, whose writings have been approved by learned and devout doctors. One day during Advent, as the Saint sought to salute the Mother of God in a most pleasing manner, Our Lord Himself deigned to instruct her as follows:

“Thou shalt salute my holy Mother’s Immaculate Heart as an ocean filled with heavenly grace
and a treasure full of countless blessings for mankind.

“Thou shalt honor it as the immaculate Heart after mine own because she was the first to take the vow of chastity.

“Thou shalt hail it as the humblest Heart of any simple creature, for her humility drew me from my Father’s bosom and rendered her worthy to conceive me in her chaste womb by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“Thou shalt reverence her Heart as supremely devout and most ardent in its desire for my
Incarnation and birth on earth, because the fervor of her desires and of her longing attracted me to her and became the cause of man’s salvation.

“Thou shalt honor her Heart as most glowingly inflamed with love for God and man. Thou shalt
salute it as the wisest and most prudent, for she kept in her Heart the memory of each event of my childhood, youth and adult life and made a most holy use of this remembrance.

“Thou shalt greet her Heart as the most faithful, for she not only consented to permit me, her
only Son, to be sacrificed, but she also offered me to my Eternal Father as a sacrifice for the
redemption of the world.

“Thou shalt salute her Heart as the most vigilant and most zealous for the interests of the
Church, for the care she took to pray unceasingly could not be disregarded.

“Thou shalt glorify her Heart as raised to the highest degree of uninterrupted contemplation,
for no tongue can worthily speak of the graces and favors that men owe to the power of her
intercession.” (Lib. spec, gratiae, lib. 1, cap. 2.)

Thus did Our Lord speak to St. Mechtilde, revealing clearly how pleasing to His Divine Majesty
is the devotion to His Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart and how profitable to those who practice it.

But if we shall further lend our ears to Jesus, the great teacher of the devotion to Mary’s
Immaculate Heart, He will impart to us many other edifying and consoling truths. Let us listen.

I alone, Our Lord tells us, can worthily proclaim the devotion which the hearts of all who love
me shall cultivate towards the Heart of my holy Mother, for I am the source and principle of all the great and marvellous qualities to be found in this abyss of wonders, and I alone have a perfect knowledge of the eminent perfections of her Immaculate Heart.

I am the first-born of my most worthy Mother’s incomparable Heart, as I am the
first fruit of the adorable Heart of my Eternal Father. My admirable Mother formed me and carried me in her Heart more holily, longer and sooner than in her womb. (S. Leo, Serm. De Nat. Dom. See also S. Aug., Lib. de Sancta Virginitate, c. 30.) She bore me in her bosom for nine months only, but she always held me and will forever hold me in her Immaculate Heart. I am, therefore, in a way, more truly the fruit of her Heart than of her womb.

I have always been and shall forever be the most singular object of all the affections of her
Immaculate Heart, as she herself has always been and will forever be, after my Eternal Father, the first object of my love. All who truly love me must, therefore, be particularly zealous in honoring and teaching others to honor the Heart that I love more and that gives me greater glory and love than the hearts of all the angels and men together.

For all these reasons, I myself have willed to be the teacher of this devotion practiced by
many of my saints during the past centuries, a devotion still observed in many churches today; and I personally taught the first principles of this devotion to St. Mechtilde.

O admirable mystery! Her incomparable Heart is, among created beings, the masterpiece of
my Almighty Goodness: yet by an unfathomable miracle I am myself the excellent product of her humility, whereby she drew me from my Father’s adorable bosom, where I was born before all ages began, that I might be born of my virginal Mother in the fulness of time.

Yes, the incomparable Heart of Mary, Mother of our Redeemer, is a most precious and radiant
mirror in which Jesus, the eternal Sun, reflects Himself in perfect manner, with all His beauties
and perfections, and thereby renders her Immaculate Heart so admirable, so amiable and so praiseworthy that it should be, next to the Godman, the principal object of our devotion on earth, even as it is the first object of veneration for the happy inhabitants of heaven.

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
August 3, 2022

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Consecration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Immaculate Heart of Mary
http://ourladyofmountcarmelusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consecration-to-Immaculate-Heart-by-Our-Lady-of-Mt.-Carmel-SSPX-Marian-Corps.pdf

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Posted in Newsletters and tagged 2022, August Newsletter, Father Pancras Raja